The Reading Room

"Novel of the Decade: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - If there is a signature novel of the aughts—one book that most artfully co-opted our newfangled webbiness, that allowed itself to feel simultaneously major and small, that anchored its post-postmodern gimmickry in solid fictional ground—it was Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007). It took Díaz, famously, eleven years to follow his first book, the short-story collection Drown, with Oscar Wao—the same amount of time it took Tom Wolfe to write his 750-page A Man in Full. Instead of pouring that time and energy into making Oscar Wao long and sprawling and sweeping and universal, Díaz made the book radically particular and condensed. It performs classic meganovel services— tracking a family through several generations, telling the history of an entire nation—in 350 pages. It’s rare to find a novel so short so often referred to as “epic.” - Derrick from Bookmarklet

I didn't realize it was this sweeping epic of a story. It's on my nightstand as we speak. I'm gonna have to check it out. Maybe tonight. - Derrick

"For the longest time I wondered why it took me so long to get around to reading certain books in my personal library. Last month I hit upon the answer when I took “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” on a trip to Los Angeles. I had not read Mark Twain’s masterpiece since my teens but had fond memories of that most unlikely of high school experiences — reading an assigned work I did not loathe. Now, decades later, I had every confidence that this experience would be repeated. It was not. This, however, was not Twain’s fault; I simply could never get physically comfortable with the book. The problem was the packaging. My copy, which I’d picked up at a rummage sale, was a traditional Bantam Classic, but the cover was a doctored photo from the 1993 Walt Disney film version of the novel. It was typically nauseating Disney iconography, depicting a promiscuously cute little Huck, played by a very young Elijah Wood, and a surprisingly dapper Jim (Courtney B. Vance) sashaying through the... more... - Katy S from Bookmarklet

"Spurred by this recollection, I recently scrutinized my library to see how many unread books had disgusting covers. The results were staggering. In one bookcase sat rows and rows of beautiful Penguin classics. Beneath them sat my favorite works of fiction, all of which had very nice packaging, ranging from the catchy (Haruki Murakami’s “Norwegian Wood”) to the elegant (Andrea Barrett’s... more... - Katy S

"A book for all tastes - literally. No matter where you stand on the big Marmite 'love-hate' debate, you will find something in it to your liking. As the title indicates, it contains a mish-mash of information - from serious to silly with lots in between - about the iconic British spread. From its beginnings as brewing industry yeast-waste to its use in the finest restaurants, this book reveals the grip Marmite has on palates - and minds - around the world. The tales it tells amount to a social history, covering more than 100 years. It is crammed with insights into how it all began, the old-time recipes, its place in medicine, its role in education and wars, its many unlikely uses (apart from eating it), and much more. All of which add up to an amazing feat for a humble kitchen cupboard product. But above all it's a fun read about the zany world occupied by Marmite. The lovers of the spread will love the book. But they will also hate it - because of all the ammunition the 'loathers'... more... - Katy S from Bookmarklet

"The nose knows when it comes to detecting the condition of old books. A new study finds that the familiar musty smell old books give off may be a better way to tell their condition than traditional ways that typically destroy part of the document. Researchers from the UK and Slovenia developed a new technique called "material degradomics," which examines the gasses old books and paper documents produce as they degrade. For the study they examined 72 19th and 20th century historic papers that included paper made with wood fiber, gelatin and rosin-sized papers and coated and uncoated papers, and identified 15 volatile organic compounds that act as degradation markers used to detect decaying paper. In the study the authors described the smell of old books as "A combination of grassy notes with a tang of acids and a hint of vanilla over an underlying mustiness," which sounds like some wines we've had." - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

"The Kindly Ones, originally published in French, won the Prix Goncourt in 2006. It has sold over a million copies in Europe. The judges used the occasion to praise an ambitious and impressive novel. They said: 'It is in part a work of genius. However, a mythologically inspired passage and lines such as "I came suddenly, a jolt that emptied my head like a spoon scraping the inside of a soft-boiled egg" clinched the award for The Kindly Ones. We hope he takes it in good humour.' Jonathan Littell was unavailable for comment. The winning passage is quoted below. Other shortlisted authors this year included Paul Theroux, Nick Cave, Philip Roth, Amos Oz, Anthony Quinn, John Banville, Richard Milward, Sanjida O'Connell and Simon Van Booy. From The Kindly Ones: Her vulva was opposite my face. The small lips protruded slightly from the pale, domed flesh. This sex was watching at me, spying on me, like a Gorgon's head, like a motionless Cyclops whose single eye never blinks. Little by little... more... - Katy S from Bookmarklet

Wow. That was...a really terrible passage. - Laura H.

"If hip-hop culture reshaped our justice system... Paul Butler is a Harvard Law grad and former federal prosecutor who believes that the American criminal justice system is broken. In his book, "Let's Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Punishment," published by The New Press, he offers a vision of justice that he hopes would lead to fewer inmates and fairer treatment of the accused. It's a theory founded in pop culture. Butler is a law professor at George Washington University. GUEST BLOGGER: Paul Butler Imagine crime and punishment in a hip-hop nation. Believe it or not, the culture provides a blueprint for the transformation of American criminal justice. Hip-hop leads us toward a system that would enhance public safety and treat all people with respect. Who would have thought that the most thuggish art could improve law and order? I grew up listening to hip-hop, and I "can't stop/ won't stop" digging the music now that I am a law professor. But it was when I was a DC prosecutor that I really started to learn from it." - Katy S from Bookmarklet

"We would do better if the ghetto philosophers and the classic theorists met. It turns out that English jurist and social reformer Jeremy Bentham and Snoop Dogg have a lot in common. Erykah Badu and philosopher Immanuel Kant would get along well, but their differences would be instructive. Hip-hop artists represent a community that has borne the brunt of this country's mad rush to incarcerate. That community knows much, has laid it down on tracks, and now attention must be paid. " - Katy S

"“It’s impossible to tell you what I’m going to do except to say that I expect to make the best movie ever made,” Stanley Kubrick wrote to an associate in October 1971. Wily chess master that he was, the director rarely resorted to bombast. But in his third attempt to make Napoleon—a film that, according to his widow, Christiane Kubrick, “swallowed [him] up” like no other—he was willing to make an exception. The director was on a mission. He was unimpressed by every Napoleon movie ever made, from Abel Gance’s 1927 silent to Marlon Brando’s mumbly Désirée. Kubrick—who by the time of his death in 1999 had assembled one of the world’s largest archives of Napoleon-related material—hoped to offer the most comprehensive vision of the emperor’s life, covering 50 years in three hours. And he had been trying to do that since 1967." - Derrick from Bookmarklet

"He struggled to understand how such a capable man could be so manipulated by the philandering Josephine, or have so hopelessly miscalculated the Russian campaign that defeated him. " - Todd Hoff

"If you could put together the perfect list of great fantasy novels, what would they be? Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians, put together his list and posted about it over on The Week. Grossman's list is non-ordered, so these are all ranked as equally awesome: — The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis — The Once and Future King by T.H. White — Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories — The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien — Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke — Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link" - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

Smurfs and the Magic Flute - Morgan Haley

"Confession. The first time I read a Raymond Carver story, I didn’t get it. It was so spare, so lacking epiphan—-- I thought: “Huh?” But then, I read his story, A Small, Good Thing. And Cathedral and Neighbors. I read his collection, Where I’m Calling From. And then, I got it. Carver’s stories are gritty, unadorned tales of ordinary people. Their very simplicity and elegance gives them a deep, emotional punch. This is why Carver has been extolled as a master of “minimalism.” Which is ironic. Because according to Raymond Carver: A Writer’s Life, by Carol Sklenicka, Carver’s own life wasn’t minimalist at all. It was stunningly chaotic." - Derrick from Bookmarklet

In a year largely defined by $9.99 best-sellers and the rise of grayish E-readers, to even contemplate picking up a pricey and pictorially resplendent "big book" this holiday season seems like bucking the trend. Still, it lifts the spirit to know that in a time of radical downsizing, publishers remain dedicated to crafting gorgeous and stimulating coffee-table gems. So many of them, in fact, that whittling my stack of possibilities down to the most gift-worthy 10 — with a mind to different interests and pocketbooks — was a job suited for a real Scrooge. Note that not every book here outweighs a holiday goose. Some are merely big in ideas. But two things are guaranteed with these lush and elaborately illustrated titles: A Kindle can't contain them (with one exception), and their pleasures and fascinations are endless. - Derrick

"In the late 1930s, when he was still an amateur fighter, Sugar Ray Robinson began lugging an old Victrola record player around with him on the road. He’d bring a stack of records too, the good stuff: some Jelly Roll Morton and Duke Ellington and Fats Waller. He’d warm up to these soul-filling sounds and then burst into the ring, Wil Haygood writes in “Sweet Thunder,” his excellent new biography of Robinson, “guided by the jazz in his head and the beckoning lights.” The jazz that filled Robinson’s head, and that he loved his entire life, spills over into Mr. Haygood’s book like a buoyant soundtrack. Robinson befriended many jazz players over the years (Miles Davis, Billy Eckstine, Dizzy Gillespie). He loved their style, and they loved his. As Mr. Haygood writes, Sugar Ray was “the first modern prizefighter to take culture — music and grace and dance — into the ring with him.” It was something to see. Robinson really brought it all: the beautiful smile, the finely chiseled body, the thin mustache and wavy hair, the coiled ease with which he moved." - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

"He was born Walker Smith Jr. in Detroit on May, 3, 1921. (The name Ray Robinson was an accident. He’d borrowed it to fill in for a fighter with that name, and it stuck. A sportswriter added the “Sugar.”) His father had moved the family north from rural Georgia, where he’d been a farmer. There was more money in Detroit’s construction industry. Robinson’s parents divorced when he was... more... - RAPatton

"Boxing saved him. He began fighting for a church team, and then won two Golden Gloves championships. His punches landed with such propulsive fury that his nickname almost became Death Ray. (In 1947 he killed a fighter, Jimmy Doyle, with a knockout blow to the chin.) It was as if he understood, as Mr. Haygood writes, that “one of the few ways for a black man in America to approximate a... more... - RAPatton

"Hoping to put your hands on a Nook this holiday season? Here's hoping you got in the door early, because bookseller Barnes & Noble claims that the Kindle-competitor has sold out for anyone hoping to gift the thing this year. According to the New York Times, B&N says pre-orders on the device have exceeded its expectations, and the well has now run dry on forthcoming stock. To make up for the loss, the seller is offering placeholder certificates for buyers, with a promise that the next round of devices will be shipping out around January 4th." - Derrick from Bookmarklet

boo, i was going to buy myself one. - Jason

"Now that I have seen the movie "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," I'm all the more bewildered by its enthusiastic reception, especially in the white media. The fictional story revolves around a black teenager, Claireece "Precious" Jones, who is raped by her father, gets pregnant by him -- twice -- and endures the depravity of her psychopathic mother. The Huffington Post raved: "This is a film that doesn't shy away from the depths to which human beings can sink. . . ." You'd think the movie was a documentary. The independent film, directed by Lee Daniels and adapted from a 1996 novel by the poet Sapphire, raked in an impressive $6 million during its weekend debut. Little wonder, though, given all the media buzz. The New York Times Magazine featured the movie as a cover story last month and declared: "Precious is a stand-in for anyone -- black, white, male, female -- who has ever been devalued or underestimated." Let's see: I lose my job, so I take in a movie about a... more... - Katy S from Bookmarklet

"You'd think the movie was a documentary." Mr. Milloy didn't hear about the auditions in which the vast majority of the girls had lives so similar to the Precious story that they weren't cast for fear of exploiting the horror of their real life stories. - EricaJoy

"More than a month after two Kentucky public-library employees were fired after refusing to allow a child to check out The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier, details surrounding their dismissal finally are emerging. In a lengthy article in the Lexington Herald-Leader, we learn the story didn't begin on Sept. 22, when Jessamine County Library circulation-desk attendants Beth Bovaire and Sharon Cook decided the graphic novel was inappropriate for the 11-year-old girl who had reserved it. Instead, events date back almost a year, when the 57-year-old Cook, appalled that children had access to the Alan Moore-Kevin O'Neill book, challenged its inclusion in the graphic-novel section, which apparently is tantalizingly close to Young Adult Fiction. When that didn't work, she checked the book out of the library -- and kept renewing it, effectively removing it from circulation, until Sept. 21. That's when Cook tried to renew Black Dossier again, only to discover the computer... more... - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

What would the ACLU do? - Andrizzle Gizzle

"I am dying: it’s a beautiful word. Like the long slow sigh of a cello: dying. But the sound of it is the only beautiful thing about it. As life slips away, Gabriel looks back over his brief twenty years, which have been clouded by frustration and humiliation. A small, unforgiving town and distant, punitive parents ensure that he is never allowed to forget the horrific mistake he made as a child. He has only two friends - his dog, Surrender, and the unruly wild boy, Finnigan, a shadowy doppelganger with whom the meek Gabriel once made a boyhood pact. But when a series of arson attacks grips the town, Gabriel realizes how unpredictable and dangerous Finnigan is. As events begin to spiral violently out of control, it becomes devastatingly clear that only the most extreme measures will rid Gabriel of Finnigan for good." - Katy S from Bookmarklet

More YA fiction goodness. This book is both brilliant and terrifying. I love it. It continues to haunt me. - Katy S

"The escapades of the Greek gods and heroes get a fresh spin in the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, about a contemporary 12-year-old New Yorker who learns he's a demigod. Perseus, aka Percy Jackson, thinks he has big problems. His father left before he was born, he's been kicked out of six schools in six years, he's dyslexic, and he has ADHD. What a surprise when he finds out that that's only the tip of the iceberg: he vaporizes his pre-algebra teacher, learns his best friend is a satyr, and is almost killed by a minotaur before his mother manages to get him to the safety of Camp Half-Blood--where he discovers that Poseidon is his father. But that's a problem, too. Poseidon has been accused of stealing Zeus' lightning bolt, and unless Percy can return the bolt, humankind is doomed. Riordan's fast-paced adventure is fresh, dangerous, and funny. Percy is an appealing, but reluctant hero, the modernized gods are hilarious, and the parallels to Harry Potter are... more... - Derrick from Bookmarklet

I've read this whole series and consider these books a guilty pleasure. Eventually, after I talked about how entertaining the books were, my 12 yr. old son read them. :-) - Jenny R.

"Yours Ever’s carefully compiled selection of written communications is an exploration of the loss of letter writing in the face of the onslaught of email, Twitter, and instant messaging. Arranged by categories like “Friendship,” “Advice,” “Complaint,” “Love,” and “Confession,” Mallon’s ode to the written word focuses on the past, chronicling the correspondence of historical figures such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, cataloguing the musings of Flannery O’Connor, and bringing news from the court of Louis XIV in what Booklist calls “an eloquent tribute to an endangered form of communication.” Mallon’s analysis is weaved throughout, and he “adroitly distills each correspondent’s purpose while placing it in a greater thematic context.” From travel bulletins and suicide notes to fan mail and personal letters, Mallon’s own collection of letters began all the way back when “a first-class stamp cost 29 cents,” as Mallon puts it. Says Publishers Weekly: “This smart, witty, and lively account with excerpts of a not-yet-extinct literary genre will whet our appetites for published collections of letters.”" - Derrick from Bookmarklet

Ooh, Aden. That might just now be my favorite site ever. - Derrick

"The pendants on these necklaces look like realistic miniature books from a dollhouse. Margaux Kent created these dainty book pendants with antique scrap leather in autumnal tones for the covers and lineless Strathmore paper for the pages inside (which you can even write on)." - Katie: Whelmed Overly from Bookmarklet

"Graphic books have been plentiful in 2009, with diverse approaches: memoir (“Stitches”), reportage (“A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge”), fiction (“Asterios Polyp”), adaptation (Richard Stark’s “The Hunter”) and superhero (“Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?”). There are many more. Whether you’re already a fan or want to dip your toe into the medium, consider the following books." - RAPatton

'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz', 'Fables', 'Peter & Max: a Fables Novel', 'Bloom County: The Complete Library, Volume One: 1980-1982', '3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man', 'Act-I-Vate Primer' 'The Absolute Death' , 'The Complete Essex County' 'Criminal', 'Scott Pilgrim' and 'The Walking Dead' - RAPatton

it depends on the book. some books i don't think i could stand to have read for me bc i like to be able to image who the characters are as i read. stuff like freakanomics and why google wins i can listen to more easily - Sir Shuping

I love audiobooks. I got hooked on them when I was commuting in Chicago & because of where I lived and where I worked, I *had* to drive. some books are better than others, and it's definitely almost entirely due to the narrator. loved the Stephen Fry version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, enjoy the Stephanie Plum series read by Lorelei King, really like the JD Robb In Death series... more... - Katie

"I have been sharing these slogans with the writers I've worked with over the years in different publishing houses, and for many authors, they have acted as catalysts, breaking through anything from solving a structural conundrum to bringing a long case of writer's block to an end. When we started the books page, I contacted Ginsberg's literary estate to see if we could post the slogans, and happily, the answer was "yes."" - Brad Williamson from Bookmarklet

"Nabokov never wanted us to read his unfinished last novel. Unless, thrillingly, he did." - Derrick from Bookmarklet

Agreed. - Joe

"It’s probably already happened at your institution–university libraries are built at a certain moment in time with certain assumptions about the kinds of growth and collections storage they’ll need in the future. Given the expanded role they’ve been expected to play in the past twenty years as sites that offer PCs, web access, and access to digital collections and databases, on top of the books and journals they continue to purchase and store, more and more libraries are moving to off-site storage for their older and/or less frequently used volumes. (Baa Ram U. has off-site storage books that are usually delivered in a day or two. It’s understandable–we’ve been here since 1870, so you have to have priorities.) Syracuse University library had a plan to move half of their collection to a storage facility 250 miles away–and the faculty and students revolted Wednesday night (h/t Inside Higher Ed):" - Katy S from Bookmarklet

Another thing people don't seem to be taking into account is that off-site storage is a simple as going to your local U-Store and sticking the stuff there. The University of Kansas facility that is mentioned was built specifically for this type of storage and is climate controlled and has an excellent way of inventorying the items stored there. It was very expensive to build. Libraries... more... - Junebug (aka Sarah Jill)

"In a postscript to his novel "Lolita" (Putnam, $5) Vladimir Nabokov answers the question which teachers of literature are apt to ask: What is the author's purpose? he says, "Now, I happen to be the kind of author who in starting to write a book has no other purpose than to get rid of the book and who, when asked to explain its origin and growth, has to rely on such ancient terms as Interreaction of Inspiration and Combination -- which I admit, sounds like a conjurer explaining by one trick performing another." The simplest part of the matter is that he had to write the book because it would not allow itself to remain unwritten.  Books have such a away with serious and dedicated authors, a life and almost will of their own. "Once or twice," he writes, "I was on the point of burning the unfinished draft... when I was stopped by the thought that the ghost of the destroyed book would haunt my files for the rest of my life."" - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

"What you will find in "Lolita" are other pleasures and other sadnesses. If you like Fielding, Smollett and Sterne, if the comic novel of the 18th century appeals to you, you are in for a treat. "Lolita" is a small masterpiece, an almost perfect comic novel, a rare thing in these days when we have lost sight of the purgative and pleasurable effects of comedy and when tragedy has become the small and poverty-stricken province of southern effetes and New England housewives. " - RAPatton

"Novelist Cormac McCarthy shuns interviews, but he relishes conversation. Last week, the author sat down on the leafy patio of the Menger Hotel, built about 20 years after the siege of the Alamo, the remains of which are next door. The afternoon conversation, which also included film director John Hillcoat of "The Road," went on 'til dark, then moved to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Dressed in crisp jeans and dimpled brown cowboy boots, Mr. McCarthy began the meal with a Bombay Gibson, up. The 76-year-old author first broke through with his 1985 novel "Blood Meridian," a tale of American mercenaries hunting Indians in the Mexican borderland. Commercial success came later with 1992's "All the Pretty Horses," a National Book Award winner and the first installment of a Border Trilogy. Critics delved into his detailed vision of the West, his painterly descriptions of violence, and his muscular prose stripped of most punctuation." - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

"Now, set for release Nov. 25 is a screen adaptation of "The Road," a novel that marked another major stage of Mr. McCarthy's career. As intimate as it is grim, the book tells the story of a man's bond with his young son as the two struggle for survival years after a cataclysm has erased society. The novel won a Pulitzer Prize in 2007 and was promoted heavily by Oprah Winfrey as a... more... - RAPatton

The Human Genre Project is a collection of new writing in very short forms — short stories, flash fictions, reflections, poems — inspired by genes and genomics. - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie) from Bookmarklet

"Every year since 1952, the Book Review has asked a panel of judges to select 10 books from among the several thousand children’s books published that year. The judges this time around were Adam Gopnik, who writes regularly for The New Yorker and is the author of two novels for children, “The King in the Window” and the forthcoming “Steps Across the Water”; Jillian Tamaki, a teacher at the School of Visual Arts and the recipient of a Society of Illustrators gold medal; and Lisa Von Drasek, the children’s librarian of the Bank Street College of Education." - Derrick from Bookmarklet

"Dark Horse has finally released a softcover edition of Brian K. Vaughan’s The Escapists this week. The book, which is based on characters and concepts introduced in Michael Chabon’s New York Times-bestselling novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and serves more as a sequel to that book than a tie-in to Dark Horse’s previous anthology of short comic stories featuring Chabon’s The Escapist character. It’s been available in hardcover since January 2008 and has, according to Vaughan, been an “evergreen” sales item at comic shops and bookstores around the country." - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

I like most of BKV's work, and the Escapists was one of my favorites, especially that last page which he waxes about. - RAPatton

"The wandering of the Jews is frozen in the marble of the corned beef on rye. The fall of the Temple, the exile, life in the ghetto, reliance on the cheapest meat and the ensuing need to tenderize and smoke and spice, the crossing to the New World -- it all culminates in the towering sandwich you find at the Carnegie in New York, Junior's in L.A., Manny's in Chicago. Every deli is a synagogue. What remained when the kingdom was smashed and the faithful sent a-wandering. In his deeply satisfying new book "Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of Jewish Delicatessen," David Sax sets out to tell this story one city, one deli, one tradition at a time, traveling from New York to San Francisco to Los Angeles, speaking to deli men, eating smoked meat, working as a cutter at Katz's on Houston Street ("Like snowflakes, no two pastramis are exactly alike, sometimes the flesh would be buttery soft, with very few sinews to impede my carving, but often I'd cut... more... - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

I have always found pastrami to be the most sensual of the salted, cured meats. - ha3rvey (likes fritos)

"Last week Bleeding Cool pointed out that the three bestselling books in France were all comics, Asterix & Obelix, Naruto Vol 44 and Happy Sex. This week those books maintain their places fopr a second week. But they’ve been joined at number 6 by XIII Mystery Vol 2: Irana, a spinoff of the popular XIII series by Eric Corbeyran and Philippe Berthet. And at number 8 by Les forêts d’Opale, t. 6 : Le sortilège du pontife (The Opal Forests: The Pontiff’s Curse) by Christophe Arleston, Philippe Pellet. Arleston is considered the most likely candidate to take over writing the Asterix books. And before the end of the month, the new volume of monster hit Blake & Mortimer is published, second only in sales to Asterix and Titeuf. As a result of this best selling comics glut, some publishers are pulling out of December, usually a best-selling month, including the manga branch of Glénat. And on the Asterix front, Casemate magazine published an interview with Albert Uderzo that states that he has... more... - RAPatton from Bookmarklet

That is actually quite common in the french market - "bande dessinee" is totally mainstream and has been since before I was born. It shows in the variety and quality of what is on offer - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)